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Dwarves of the Thorns
The Fall When Euphradon fell and the land became corrupted it was not just men and elves who became displaced. The great dragons of Maeron, many of whom had participated in the society built by King Eupheron in secret, found that they were not exempt from the dangers posed by Lolth's corruption. They fled, en masse to the Thorns. The mountain range was made attractive by its safety, its wealth, and the relative ease which with both were claimed by the dragons from those who lived there. However, while neither the tribes of orcs who lived atop the mountains, nor the dwarves below posed any threat to the dragons, old hatreds between chromatic and metallic dragons were rekindled as they were forced to share borders. The Dragon War The Dragon War, as it was called by the lesser races, lasted little more than a year. While it completely annihilated the tribes atop the Thorns, it was little more than a spat as far as the dragons were concerned. In the end, the Council of Io was established. Chromatic and Metallic dragons divided the mountains which held the dwarven holds among themselves.The dwarves had no say in the matter. Under the Council of Io, dwarven holds which had historically been run by Thanes, were now overseen by governors, dragon disciple dwarves. The governors reported to their dragon masters, who in turn owed some form of vassalage to more powerful dragons. The system was largely inscrutable to those not dragons. What was very clear, however, was that the new dragon overlords demanded annual tribute, and that any hold that did not pay would share the fate of the tribes above. The Cartels In the rest of the world, dwarven society became split into two parts. Dwarves who were not in the Thorns at the time of the fall had no context for what had become of their homeland. They formed new communities in the places they settled after the corruption and effectively divorced themselves from the dwarves from the Thorns. On the other hand, those dwarves who were in the Thorns were now effectively slaves to the dragons. Some had more autonomy than others depending on how friendly they were to the regime and which dragon held control of the territory their hold was in, but all submitted to the will of the dragons or were destroyed. The dragons, wishing to increase their wealth beyond what was available to them in the mountains, permitted some dwarves to trade or establish enterprises in other cities as long as they paid their dues to their dragon overlords. These operations were overseen by theExarchs. They were much like the governors except instead of overseeing a hold they oversaw cartels, the mercantile operations of their dragon masters. Members wear badges to indicate which cartel they belong to. While most people outside of the Thorns think the dragons on these badges are some kind of heraldic symbolism, in truth, they show to which dragon the cartel, and by extension the dwarves in it, belong. Amethyst Pass The twelve mountains that make up the part of the Thorns known as Amethyst Pass are controlled by Aurumia a Great Gold Wyrm, and Charir Usk a Great Red Wyrm. Aurumia is an ancient dragon who is generally disinclined to have any interaction with the dwarves of the mountains she controls other than counting the gold that pay her in tribute, and keeping the tyrannical Charir Usk in check. Charir Usk both hates and fears Aurumia, as he wishes to dominate the Thorns but must yield to her power and influence and offer a truce and co-ownership of the Thorns and Pass. To deal with the dwarves they have their vassals, which include both metallic and chromatic dragons assigned to the mountains, and they, in turn, assign governors to the holds. While the governors tend to remain the same, the dragon in control of the mountain changes without warning or reason as suits the incomprehensible whims of Aurumia or Charir Usk. Blood Granite Hold Ancestral home of the Runecutter clan (Yor'uk in dwarven). The Thane Dur'an was pushed into the clergy of Moradin after the dragon wars. He was replaced by Governor Bolli,a power hungry sycophant.